Faster Payments Resource Center

Through unprecedented industry collaboration, the Faster Payments Task Force – a coalition including WesPay and more than 300 diverse payments industry stakeholders – is charting the course for the modernization of the U.S. payments system. The Task Force recently announced 10 recommendations that will set the standard for making payments faster and more accessible to everyone. These recommendations focus on three key areas – governance and regulation, infrastructure, and sustainability and evolution – and call upon the entire payments industry to continue collaborating to establish a ubiquitous way for people and institutions to make and receive payments. Additionally, they highlighted the 16 faster solution proposals that were assessed against the Task Force’s Effectiveness Criteria and discussed how they represent a significant step forward in innovation towards making the U.S. payment system faster and safer. Read the Task Force’s Final Report in the PDF below.

In February of 2016, the Task Force published a comprehensive Effectiveness Criteria as a description of stakeholder needs that can be used to assess faster payments solutions and as a guide for innovation in the payments industry. The document defines 36 effectiveness criteria grouped into the following six categories: Ubiquity, Efficiency, Safety and Security, Speed (Fast), Legal, and Governance (see PDF). Each criterion is described through a summary definition and additional considerations that elaborate on desired attributes. For purposes of assessing faster payments solutions, an effectiveness scale is established for each criterion. We provide an example of a Ubiquity criterion, complete with an explanation about the components of each criterion (see PDF). Should you have any questions about the terminology used, please consult the Glossary of Terms, which provides the foundation for a common lexicon.

Since 2015, WesPay’s CEO, William Schoch, has been a part of the Task Force, dedicating resources and expertise to this historic effort and contributing to improving the U.S. payment system. While there remains much to do in order to make faster payments a reality, The U.S. Path to Faster Payments, Final Report Part Two: A Call to Action brings us that much closer.